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Art Toronto finds a way to redefine itself

It’s that time of year again, where art dealers from one end of the country to the other check their lofty ambitions at the door of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and, quite literally, set up shop. The weekend before, the expansive concrete hangar hosted a trade fair for holistic and naturopathic foods and medicines, and if ever you wondered about how the business side of the art world managed to remain largely veiled, then this is the curtain, abruptly pulled back.

With its 124 galleries shoved shoulder-to-shoulder in tight temporary booths under the glare of kilowatts of fluorescent lights, Art Toronto, like most any art fair, isn’t the ideal venue for artistic contemplation. It has, however, proven to be a reasonable place to move product: Since its inception in 2000, millions of dollars have been spent on art here, a trade-off for the trade-show atmosphere that most dealers seem willing to make.

Feature gave them what they wanted: A space apart from the trade fair, and an atmosphere that felt at least slightly removed from the hucksterism that attended it. While in public it was niceties all around – both fairs spoke of being complementary, not competitive – in private, more than one dealer I spoke to said they had heard from Art Toronto, warning they wouldn't be allowed to do both fairs.

Feature withered earlier this year, declaring in February it would not be back for a third year. But Art Toronto, instead of smugly standing pat, has nonetheless taken its threat to heart. This year the fair delves deeper into an array of artist-lead and grassroots projects that connect it, finally, to the city in which it operates – something that may not have happened without a shot across the bow.

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“Having done Art Toronto several times in the past I appreciated the freshness and energy of Feature, as well as the more interesting venue,” said Clint Roenisch, a local dealer who returns to Art Toronto this year after a two-year Feature hiatus. “I think the temporary exodus of the many top galleries to Feature was a message that Art Toronto needed to become a better fair, and I think they took that to heart.”

Seeing, of course, is believing, and when Art Toronto opens to the public Friday you can make your own call. Until then, a few added features – pun intended – designed to give Art Toronto the boost it needs:

Edition Toronto Art Book Fair: For years, Art Toronto’s lease on the main floor plate of the convention centre, upstairs, has included a sterile room downstairs, typically put to no useful purpose. This year that changes with Edition, a charmingly eccentric, homegrown festival of artists’ books and multiples, anchored by the city’s esteemed Art Metropole, founded by the members of General Idea in 1974. Amid the array of wonderfully weird bits and pieces, look for Rutherford Chang’s We Buy White Albums, the New York-based artist’s display of his collection of 1,500 first-edition pressings of the Beatles 1968 classic. Why? Ask someone. This is a place to talk goofy collector’s obsession guilt-free.

Artist Projects: Art Toronto has always done at least one of these, usually at the top of the escalators leading into the big concrete hall, with varying impact (Kent Monkman’s The Art Game, from 2011, hit the high end; Thom Sokoloski’s All The Artists Are Here, from 2013, the low). This year, there are fully seven installations by different artists and collectives sprinkled throughout the space, leavening the trade-show atmosphere with some needed mystery and surprise. Ones to watch: Toronto-based performance duo Life of a Craphead’s Sounds of Venice, and the creepily enthralling Pit Couch, a video installation by Jon Rafman.

Divide and conquer: Feature, in its short life, provided a discerning refuge from Art Toronto’s less-than-discriminating format – you pay the price, you get a booth. Last year, as a response, the big fair did what it probably should have some years ago, breaking up its giant list into four much more manageable parts. This year, it’s both larger and more defined: the Main program, for well-established galleries from here and afar; Focus, a program this year concentrating on artists from Latin America; Solo, a program of a dozen small-scale solo shows by artists in their solitary booths (welcome relief from the cram-together fair convention); and Verge, for the proverbial up-and-comers. It still won’t be enough differentiation for most, but it’s a start.

Art Toronto opens with a VIP preview Thursday night at 6:30 PM (tickets $250-$350) and then to the general public on Friday Oct. 28 at noon until Monday Oct. 31 at 6 PM. General admission $20. For full hours and information see arttoronto.ca

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